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Confusion confounded, Lunacy, Idiocy, Hubris or WHAT?

Sad, sad it is that these are words coupled with the exotic term Yahapalanaya which translated reads ‘righteous government’. Righteousness has disappeared in the opinion of many and the descriptive words in the title of this piece are coupled with the present government.

It is enough to drive citizens to clad themselves in sack cloth and ashes, not new clothes in the prescribed colour for the national New Year, and eat words of hope we joyfully bantered for a while instead of kavun and kokis.

Even this cat loses faith and hope

Menika held out for long in her admiration of the new government. She praised it; remembered with gratitude the reduction in price of medicines and gas cylinders, abolition of the very scary white vans and goni billas.

She respected the two leaders: blue and green, and had continued faith in them. All this is sadly waning. Maybe she is influenced by what she reads in the print media and asked to judge by some channels of the electronic media. Hence her quiet and utterly reluctant admission she is losing faith and heart.

She quotes a line that haunts her: “Oh! What ails thee knight at arms? She plurals the knight addressed as there are two now leading the country. There is no need to ask what ails the country.

We know all the ills starting from mismanagement and near bankruptcy to corruption still rife and fights within. The poet asked the question in his poem La Belle Dame Sans Mercy since this wicked beauty had cast a spell on the brave knight so he was reduced to a pale whimpering scared rabbit.

It cannot be that the wicked wizard in the opposite camp with several brethren, sons and sycophants as assistants, has frightened our two knights.

Root cause

They are far from chicken hearted and lily livered. They are brave, particularly the blue one because he gambled his life and that of his family by breaking away and contesting the Maha Rajah who held absolute sway within his government and over the country. The blue knight even had the audacity to break hoppers with the big man and then dash to freedom and victory.

They are clever and wise too, particularly wise as regards men and matters having been in the thick of dirty politics for long. Thus with claimed wisdom, idiocy is swept away.

Lunacy cannot be theirs as they are sane and function well. So it must be hubris that has dimmed their eyes and clogged their ears so that they see not what people write about them and hear not what is said.

Hubris is a deadly disease that creeps in and possesses the mind and persona of an individual so he hardly knows he is a victim of this malady that led so many Greek heroes to their downfall to be chased by the Furies.

Yet for all, this feline cannot imagine the Big Boss being inundated by hubris. It was just the other day that he said he is the son of a farmer and knows full well the travails and troubles of a farmer.

Then why allow millions to be spent on luxury vehicles for himself and the Second-in-Command and permitting the Prime Minister to gift Ministers and MPs with new cars, besides giving them all an additional allowance?

The Second-in-Command can be accused of being imbued with hubris by his manner and deportment, non-smiling as he is, but his home and school background are too strong foundationed to allow foolish pride to subjugate him.

So why don’t the two of them buckle down to business and show the people they really care for them and for their opinion. They should just cooperate fully and work together like two oxen yoked to a plough.

Negatives

This feline when pawing around Google came across a quotation that is apt and explains much of the negatives of yahapalanaya. “Politics is strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs is for private advantage.” So said Ambrose Bierce (whoever he may be.) And it begins to look as if even the two we admired are only human and politicians to the core.

Shakespeare in his historical drama Richard II says this which resonates with what’s up with our country and us.

The bay-trees in our country all

are wither’d

And meteors fright the fixed stars of

heaven; The pale-fac’d moon looks

bloody on the earth

And lean-look’d prophets whisper

fearful change; Rich men look sad

and ruffians dance and leap,

The one in fear to lose what

they enjoy,The other to enjoy by

rage and war.

To render Shakespeare’s memorable lines current to Lanka’s situ, this cat makes a couple of substitutions thus:

The paddy stalks in our kumburas

are all withered

And the Jt Op frights the weaker of

the blues

The monsoon fails, the earth

lies parched

And lean mean astrologers forecast ill.

Con men look sad while sleuths

dance and leap

The one in fear to lose what they begat

The others to enjoy by strikes

and strife.

Most of us citizens hope the yahapalanaya government will wake up to the woes that beset the country and make a real hard effort to right things. Let the guilty be brought to justice; curb the GMOA and striking students; stop extravagance, shows, foreign visits and if at all possible, cancel the order for luxury cars for the top two and MPs.

Swipe the ground under the leader of the Jt Op so he stops his threat that within two poyas he will topple the government. How vicious and vengeful he is. Worse mixing religion in his threat.

We say moons, he says poya. Let it be only talk. Menika wishes us all an improved year with the sun transitting from one house to another, bringing change, for the better it is hoped.

Menika

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